April 27, 2003
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University baseball team won its eighth-straight West Coast Conference game on Sunday, this time in very dramatic fashion as they rallied from two runs down for a 5-4 victory over Loyola Marymount in Buck Shaw Stadium. The win for the Broncos moves their overall record to 24-22 and their WCC record to 16-5, while the three-game sweep drops the Lions' overall record to 22-23 and their league mark down to 9-12.
Scott Dierks, for the eighth time this season, led off the game with a home run, giving him 17 on the season which is the second highest single season total in Bronco Baseball history. This time it was an opposite field blast the game SCU a 1-0 lead.
Jon Oller belted his 11th home run of the season in the top of the third inning for LMU, a two-run blast that scored Jon Higashi and gave the Lions their first lead of the series at 2-1.
Dierks scored the Broncos' second run of the game in the bottom of the third inning as he reached base when he was hit by a Justin Abreu pitch. Jason Matteucci picked up the RBI as his single to right center scored Dierks from second base and tied the game at two.
An infield single by Billy Lockin in the fourth inning and Joe Frazee single to right center in the eighth inning gave the Lions' one run in each of those innings and moved their lead to 4-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth.
In the bottom half of the eighth inning freshman Michael Thompson belted a two-out, two-run home run over the left field fence that knotted the score at four apiece. Will Thompson, who had reached earlier in the inning on a single up the middle, scored on the big fly that came with a one ball and two strike count.
Despite getting their first two runners on in the top of the ninth inning, LMU could not push across a run as reliever Patrick Overholt induced two fielder's choice groundouts and a flyout to strand two Lions on base.
 Scott Dierks' opposite field home run in the first was his 17th of the season.  |
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In the final half of the ninth inning Dierks reached on a one-out single to right center and moved up to second on a botched pick off attempt that got away from first baseman Carl Stoeber. After Matteucci was intentionally walked, Jim Wallace strode to the plate where he promptly delivered an RBI single to shallow left field that scored Dierks for the game-winning run.
Overholt picked up the win for his one inning of work and improved his record to 4-3 on the year. John Redmond got the start and went five full innings in which he allowed three runs on eight hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
Josh Meucke took the loss for the Lions as he allowed three runs on three hits in 1 2/3 innings of work. Justin Abreu pitched well in the loss, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing only two runs on five hits.
Santa Clara returns to action Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. game against No. 4 Stanford at the Sunken Diamond. The Broncos will resume WCC action with a three-game weekend series against Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif. SCU and the Waves will begin the series Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Eddy D. Field Stadium. It will be a matchup of the top two teams in the WCC's Coast Division as Pepperdine currently holds a one game advantage over the Broncos.